PSY 1200 Lecture : Chapter 15
28 May 2023
School
Department
Course
Professor
1 Peer Relations
in Childhood and
Adolescence
EXPLORING PEER
RELATIONS
Some important questions involving peer relations are the following:
What are the functions of a child’s peer group? How are peer relations
and adult-child relations linked? What are some developmental changes
in peer relations during childhood? What role does social cognition play
in peer relations? How is emotion regulation involved in peer relations?
Functions of Peer Groups
Peers are individuals of about the same age or maturity level. Peer
groups provide a source of information and comparison about the world
outside the family. Children receive feedback about their abilities from
their peer group. They evaluate what they can do in terms of whether it is
better than, as good as, or worse than what other children do. It is hard
to make such comparisons at home because siblings are usually older or
younger.
Researchers have found that children’s peer relations can have long-term
consequences (Prinstein & others, 2018). For example, one study
indicated that low peer status in childhood (low acceptance/likeability)
was linked to increased probability of being unemployed and having
mental health problems in adulthood (Almquist & Brannstrom, 2014).
Both Jean Piaget (1932) and Harry Stack Sullivan (1953) stressed that
children learn reciprocity through interaction with their peers. Children
explore the meanings of fairness and justice by working through
disagreements with peers. They also learn to be keen observers of peers’
interests and perspectives in order to smoothly integrate themselves into
ongoing peer activities. Susceptibility to peer influences can have
positive or negative consequences (Bukowski, Laursen, & Rubin, 2018;
Rubin & Barstead, 2018). For example, in one study, children who
associated with peers who engaged in prosocial behavior at age 9 had a
higher level of self-control at age 10, and those who associated with peers
who engaged in deviant behavior at age 9 had a lower level of self-control
at age 10 (Meldrum & Hay, 2012). And a recent study that examined
parent and peer influences on adolescents’ smoking revealed that peers
had a more powerful influence than parents did (Scalici & Schulz, 2017).
What are some functions of a peer group?
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock
Being rejected or overlooked by peers leads some children to feel lonely
or hostile. Further, rejection and neglect by peers are related to an
individual’s subsequent mental health difficulties and criminal problems.
Withdrawn children who are rejected by peers or victimized and lonely
are at risk for depression (Rubin & Barstead, 2018). Children who are
aggressive with their peers are at risk for developing a number of
problems, including conduct problems, delinquency, and dropping out of
school (Vitaro, Boivin, & Poulin, 2018). Peers can also undermine
parental values and control (Masten, 2005).
Keep in mind that the influences of peer experiences vary according to
the type of peer experience, developmental status, and outcome (such as
achievement, delinquency, depression, Page 511and so on) (Bukowski,
Laursen, & Rubin, 2018; Coplan & others, 2018). “Peers” and “peer
group” are global concepts. For example, “peer group” might refer to
acquaintances, members of a clique, neighborhood associates, a
friendship network, or an activity group (Brown, 1999).
developmental connection
Attachment
Securely attached infants use the caregiver as a secure base
from which to explore their environment. Connect to
“Emotional Development and Attachment.”
Adult-Child and Peer Relations
Parents may influence their children’s peer relations in many ways, both
direct and indirect (Booth-Laforce & Groh, 2018; Ladd & Kochenderfer-
Ladd, 2019). Parents affect their children’s peer relations through their
interactions with their children, how they manage their children’s lives,
and the opportunities they provide to their children.
Basic lifestyle decisions by parents—their choices of neighborhoods,
churches, schools, and their own friends—largely determine the pool
from which their children select possible friends. These choices in turn
affect which children their children meet, their purpose in interacting,
and eventually which children become their friends.
Children and adolescents live in a connected world with parents and
peers, not one in which parents and peers are disconnected from each
other (Wang & others, 2016). For example, one study found that when
mothers coached their preschool daughters about the negative aspects of
